Worldwide concern in the mid-1980s with the outbreak of BSE in cattle in the United Kingdom has slowly caused quite a stir in Europe and the United States. This disease in humans is called Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease, and is an infectious disease that is transmitted to humans through eating beef or beef products produced from infected cattle. Recent updates verify that BSE has been reported in these European countries: United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, and Italy.
Eating meat from infected cattle with mad cow disease can lead to a fatal human form of the brain-wasting illness.
While the European Union sorts through grievances and concerns of its public and late dealing government efforts to manage the mad cow disease scare, the threat has yet to reach the United States.
Not only Americans but consumers worldwide benefit from more than 10 years of aggressive government and industry efforts that have kept the U.S. cattle herd free of this disease, explained the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) relayed by PR Newswire in December.
Given the small number of human cases in Europe and the fact that mad cow disease has never been proved to exist in U.S. cattle, most agree that the risk for most Americans remains low. Yet some experts believe there is cause for concern. Despite a decade long ban on imports of British meat and bone meal; a form of animal feed rendered from cows that is blamed for spreading the epidemic in Europe, the United States still imports tons of bovine by-products and manufactured goods containing bovine materials from Britain and other European countries.
Government officials acknowledge they are still finding and filling gaps in the wall designed to protect the U.S. food supply from the disease. This month, the Food and Drug Administration reported that hundreds of feed manufacturers and rendering companies were not complying with regulations intended to ensure the safety of domestically produced feed.
Vegetarians and animal rights activists are also concerned and up-in-arms. Hundreds of cows are being slaughtered due to the laid back attitude taken by the European Union in the 1980s. The bans in 1996 caused the slaughter of millions of cattle, and almost half a million tons of dried meat and bonemeal has since been stockpiled in secure sheds in the U.K.
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